Vrubel Bruce. Angels and Demons

Publishing the story the brilliant Mikhail Vrubel, who was faithful to creativity until the end of his life.

"The Demon Defeated", 1901-1902

The year 1901 was marked by a major family event - Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel and his wife Nadezhda Ivanovna had a son. The couple was preparing for this event very cheerfully; it seemed to them that the birth of a child would not interfere with their elegant and social life, they fantasized about how they would go abroad with their child to exhibit “The Demon.”

“The Demon Seated”, 1890 (before illness)

The spouses were in for a terrible disappointment - the boy was born with a split upper lip, this deeply struck Mikhail Vrubel. From that very moment, his relatives and friends began to notice that something was wrong with the artist.

Mikhail Vrubel with his wife, Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela-Vrubel, 1892 (before illness)

Vrubel paints a portrait of his son, who was named Savva, and gives his appearance that expression of extreme anxiety that he himself is probably experiencing.

“Portrait of the Artist’s Son,” 1902 (beginning of illness, but before first hospitalization)

At the beginning of 1902, the painting “Demon Defeated” was shown to the public at the World of Art exhibition in St. Petersburg. This is what Vrubel’s wife’s sister, Ekaterina Ivanovna Ge, remembers about that exhibition: “Mikhail Alexandrovich, despite the fact that the painting was already exhibited, rewrote it every day from early morning, and I was horrified to see the change every day. There were days that the “Demon” was very scary, and then the Demon’s expression appeared again deep sadness And new beauty... In general, despite the illness, Vrubel’s ability to create did not leave him, it even seemed to grow, but living with him was already becoming unbearable.”

“The Defeated Demon”, 1901-1902 (started before illness, rewrote it many times)

In March 1902, the artist was first admitted to a private psychiatric hospital. The picture of the illness was dominated by ideas of one’s own greatness; a period of such strong excitement ensued that meetings with even the closest people - his wife and sister - were interrupted for six months.

"Pan", 1899 (before illness)

In September of the same year, Vrubel was transported to the clinic of the psychiatrist Serbsky, wearing only a coat and hat, even without underwear, as they said that he had destroyed all his belongings.

“The Swan Princess”, 1900 (before illness)

In this hospital, things went much better, he wrote completely logical letters to his family, and on the advice of the doctor, he began to paint again.

"Lilac", 1900 (before illness)

On February 18, 1903, Mikhail Vrubel left the clinic, but he was very sad, and by April he was completely “unstuck”: he often cried, was sad, said that he was no good, could not work at all, although he was offered various orders. On May 3, 1903, a misfortune happened - Savvochka died, only child Vrubeli. In the face of this grief, Mikhail Alexandrovich behaved very courageously, personally took charge of organizing the funeral, and tried to support his wife, who was in despair.

“Portrait of N. I. Zabela-Vrubel”, 1904 (during illness)

After the funeral of their son, the Vrubels left for their estate near Kiev, where the artist became very nervous and demanded that he be taken to a hospital as soon as possible. Someone advised to define Vrubel as one of psychiatric clinics Rigi.

One of the versions of the work “Pearl”, written in pastel, approximately 1904 (during illness)

This time the illness was of a completely different nature: there was no trace left of megalomania; on the contrary, it was replaced by complete oppression. Vrubel was despondent and sad, considered himself a nonentity and wanted to lose his life.

“Self-Portrait with a Shell”, 1905 (during illness)

In the fall, the artist’s sister moved him from Riga to Moscow. In a Moscow clinic, he began to draw very successful portraits of patients, but his thoughts were confused; it seemed to Vrubel that both his wife and sister were also patients in a psychiatric hospital.

“Water lilies”, 1890 (before illness)

The drawings made in the clinic were presented at an exhibition of Moscow artists; not a shadow of the disease was visible in them.

"Hamlet and Ophelia", 1884 (before illness)

During this period, Vrubel painted the painting “The Six-Winged Seraphim,” depicting an angel with a burning lamp, a very beautiful thing, made with burning and bright colors.

“Six-winged Seraphim (Azrael)”, 1904 (during illness)

By the spring of 1904, the artist was so ill that doctors and relatives thought that he would not live to see the summer and wanted to take him abroad, but then abandoned these plans. Moscow clinics were closed for the summer, so the psychiatrist Serbsky advised Vrubel to be placed in the psychiatrist Usoltsev’s hospital, which had recently opened in the vicinity of Moscow. Patients in this hospital lived with the doctor's family and enjoyed great freedom.

“Portrait of Doctor F. A. Usoltsev”, 1904 (during illness)

The move to Usoltsev’s clinic brought amazing benefits: Vrubel began to eat (before that he had denied himself food, considering himself unworthy of food), his thoughts became clearer, he drew, wrote letters to family and friends, and two months later he recovered so much that he returned home.

The fence of a psychiatric hospital; Usoltsev’s clinic was located on this site.

After the artist was discharged from the hospital, the Vrubels moved to St. Petersburg, where Mikhail Alexandrovich led an absolutely healthy person: He rented an apartment, installed electricity in it and worked very hard.

"Morning", 1897 (before illness)

During this period, Vrubel began to write his amazing “Pearl”, which is now in the collection of the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery.

“Pearl”, 1904 (during illness)

By the beginning of 1905, Vrubel’s wife began to notice that Vrubel was very agitated; he became intractable, irritable, and spent money excessively on completely unnecessary things. The artist’s wife had to “discharge” the psychiatrist Usoltsev from Moscow, who took Vrubel to his Moscow hospital.

“After the concert” (Portrait of the artist’s wife), 1905 (during illness)

Usoltsev had a calming effect on the patient. Once in the clinic, Vrubel began to sleep, and insomnia has always been one of the dangerous symptoms of his illness. Relatives hoped that this time the illness would not last long, alas, but they were mistaken - excitement in Once again gave way to oppression. Despite his illness, Vrubel did not stop working: he painted a portrait of the entire Usoltsev family, many sick people and the poet Bryusov, who visited the artist.

“Portrait of the poet V. Ya. Bryusov”, 1906 (during illness)

Bryusov left very interesting memories of his first meeting with Mikhail Vrubel, which took place at Usoltsev’s clinic: “To tell the truth, I was horrified when I saw Vrubel. He was a frail, sick man, wearing a dirty, wrinkled shirt. He had a reddish face; eyes like a bird of prey; sticking hair instead of a beard. First impression: crazy! After the usual greetings, he asked me: “Is it you I should write?” And he began to examine me in a special way, artistically, intently, almost soulfully. Immediately his expression changed. Genius shines through the madness.”

Photo of the poet Bryusov.

When Vrubel painted Bryusov, those around him began to notice that something strange was happening to his eyes; the artist was forced to come very close to see the model. New suffering was approaching with terrifying speed; having finished the portrait of Bryusov, Vrubel almost did not see his work.

"Fortune Teller", 1894-1895 (before illness)

Mikhail Vrubel understood the horror of his situation: the artist, whose world was fabulously beautiful, is now almost blind... He began to refuse food, saying that if he starved for 10 years, he would see clearly, and his drawing would be unusually good.

“Six-Winged Seraphim”, 1905 (before illness)

The unfortunate artist was now embarrassed by his acquaintances, he said: “Why should they come, I don’t see them.”

“Valkyrie (Portrait of Princess Tenisheva)”, 1899 (before illness)

The outside world had less and less contact with Mikhail Vrubel. Despite all the efforts of his sister and wife, who regularly visited the artist, he plunged into the world of his own dreams: he told something like fairy tales that he would have eyes made of emerald, that he created all his works during the Ancient World or the Renaissance.

"Hansel and Gretel", 1896 (before illness)

During the last year of his life, the artist more and more insistently refused meat, saying that he did not want to eat “slaughter,” so they began to serve him a vegetarian table. Vrubel’s strength gradually left him; sometimes he said that he was “tired of living.”

"Seraphim", 1904-1905 (during illness)

Sitting in the garden in my last summer, he once said: “The sparrows are chirping at me - barely alive, barely alive.” The general appearance of the patient seemed to become more refined, more spiritual. Vrubel came to an end with complete calm. When he began to have pneumonia, which then turned into fleeting consumption, he took it calmly. On his last conscious day, before the agony, Vrubel especially carefully cleaned himself up, warmly kissed the hands of his wife and sister and did not speak again.

Photo of M. A. Vrubel, 1897 (before illness)

Only at night, having briefly come to his senses, the artist said, turning to the man who was caring for him: “Nikolai, I’ve had enough of lying here - let’s go to the Academy.” There was some kind of prophetic premonition in these words: within 24 hours Vrubel was solemnly brought in a coffin to the Academy of Arts - his alma mater.

“Bed” (from the series “Insomnia”), 1903-1904 (during illness)

I would like to end the story with the words of the psychiatrist Usoltsev, who, like no one else, appreciated Mikhail Vrubel, understanding the complexity of his brilliant personality: “I often heard that Vrubel’s work is sick creativity. I studied Vrubel for a long time and carefully, and I believe that his work is not only quite normal, but so powerful and durable that even a terrible illness could not destroy it. Creativity was at the core, in the very essence of it mental personality, and, having reached the end, the disease destroyed him... He died seriously ill, but as an artist he was healthy, and deeply healthy.”

“Rose in a glass”, 1904 (during illness)

At the end of January, “Portrait of the poet V. Ya. Bryusov” was taken away to be photographed for the magazine. On February 1, a telegram was delivered to the hospital: the editors congratulated Vrubel on the publication of the first issue of The Golden Fleece. The issue opened with Bryusov’s poem “M. A. Vrubel." The magazine presented a whole collection of Vrubel's works reproduced in large quantities on separate pages. On the double-page spreads, the faces of Vrubel’s prophets and messengers were placed next to the artist’s self-portraits. The leader of the “Argonauts” praised the genius:

From a life of deceit and fame

Your dream attracts you

Into the expanse of the azure sky

Or into the depths of sapphire waters.

Inaccessible to us, invisible to us,

Between the hosts of crying forces,

Seraphim descend to you

In the radiance of multi-colored wings...

On February 6, Vrubel laments: “I’m bored with idleness, and I myself can neither read nor draw,” and is looking forward to the arrival of his sister from St. Petersburg. A handwritten letter to his wife is dated February 12: “Dear Nadya, Anyuta has been with me for the third day; She and I went to Moscow and bought from Muir new pins and glasses and several paints to complete the vision of the prophet Ezekiel...” A few days later, Vrubel’s pupils almost did not react to light. Sister Nyuta became his reading eyes, guide, faithful and patient nurse.

Well, something has been said about everyone, only about her, Anna Alexandrovna Vrubel, who will now always be near her brother, almost nothing. It is difficult to restore her image. What was she like? Inconspicuous, sad, strong-willed, extremely educated, extremely well-read. For example, she discovered to the poet Vladimir Piast, and through him to Alexander Blok, August Strindberg’s book “The Lonely One,” which stunned them. Mikhail Vrubel was sometimes annoyed at Nyuta’s fuss with all sorts of “beggars”, at this philanthropy in the spirit of ideas of moral asceticism that were close to her and alien to him, but he deeply respected and simply loved his “mama” from childhood. She almost made devotion to “Mishurenka” the center of her life. Yaremic's monograph dedicated to her brother lay on the chest of drawers in her room in the House of Arts, like the Bible on the altar. Alexander Ivanov, who visited Anna Alexandrovna in the 1920s, writes: “Who went to her at first only to meet her sister famous Vrubel, soon found in her a high human personality, precious in itself, not in need of any borrowed light. Modest with that modesty that is rooted in inner dignity and genuine pride, possessing the rare art of keeping silent about herself while paying tribute to others, she truly belonged to that category of people of “duty, honor and labor”, about which her brother once spoke with such admiration " The student to whom Anna Alexandrovna gave lessons German language, she was remembered as a strict and dry “Frau”. In the memory of Olga Forsh-Sreznevskaya, she remained “a lovely old woman.”

After Anna Alexandrovna’s meeting with Usoltsev and other specialists, it was decided to transport Vrubel to St. Petersburg. Treatment as such was no longer required, only constant medical care and care of loved ones were needed. In St. Petersburg, the artist’s wife and sister now lived together. Vrubel was first placed in the luxurious clinic of A. G. Konasevich on Pesochnaya Street, where upon arrival the mentally ill celebrated his fiftieth birthday. But getting there from Theater Square it was long, inconvenient and the regime of detention there was strict, so the final refuge for Mikhail Vrubel was the clinic of Adolf Edmontovich Bari, which had a more free schedule, on the 5th line of Vasilievsky Island, not far from the Academy of Arts. Relatives hoped that this would facilitate Vrubel’s communication with his colleagues, but the blind Vrubel did not like visits to artists and rejected them. Although he was generally peaceful, excesses of behavior appeared much less frequently than before. Anna Alexandrovna noted that “with the loss of vision, incredible as it may seem, my brother’s psyche began to calm down.”

Most of all, of course, Vrubel was pleased with the appearance of his wife, who sang for him, sometimes even bringing an accompanist so that her husband could enjoy a small concert. The sister came every day, walked with the patient, and read aloud to him. There was plenty for avid book lovers to choose from; there were many favorite islands in the sea of ​​literature. Especially often, according to Anna Alexandrovna, Turgenev’s “Poems in Prose” and Chekhov’s “Steppe” were reread.

There is an expressive addition to the topic of the main pleasures of the blind Vrubel in the memoirs of Ekaterina Ge: “... Mikhail Alexandrovich was very interested in reading and could not stand only a sad ending and always replaced it with another, happier one... sometimes he was so busy with his own things that he could not listen to anyone reading, no singing, and told something like fairy tales, that he would have eyes made of emerald, that he would ancient world and during the Renaissance and made all the famous works.”

Waking dreams are the last creative genre of Mikhail Vrubel.

Once, back in Usoltsev’s hospital, Sergei Mamontov, who came to see the still sighted artist in the evening, heard from a dark room Vrubel’s passionate speech addressed to someone about freedom of creativity and, entering, greeted him, asked his friend with whom he was talking.

“Vrubel looked at me with a long and conscious look and answered with a weak smile:

You see, now I often have hallucinations and they give me great fun. And now it seemed to me that I was sitting with a student of an art school, to whom mediocre mentors were trying to instill their routine rules, supposedly leading to true art. I tried to convince the young man otherwise...

I was surprised that hallucinations could be pleasant, but Vrubel objected passionately.

“One night,” he said, “I woke up in this very small room and clearly, sensibly remembered that I was here in the hospital. But instead of a room, I was lying on a white marble terrace. Black cypress trees leaned towards me with their velvety needles, the sea was blue in the distance, and at the foot of the terrace a crowd, dressed in white classic togas, was buzzing and sending me warm greetings. It was a hallucination, but so beautiful that I didn’t have the slightest desire to drive it away and return to sad reality...”

In sad reality, Valentin Serov, in view of the “material insecurity of the sick artist M. A. Vrubel,” petitioned the academic council to ensure that the Academy of Arts found the opportunity to issue the blind Vrubel “an allowance that, being attached to the 49 rubles he received monthly from the imperial Society for the Encouragement of Artists, would amount to the required amount paid for him to the hospital, namely 75 rubles. now 100 rubles. in summer". Serov's request was respected.

The blind Vrubel became increasingly disconnected from reality. His sister later scolded herself for not recording conversations with her brother, his amazing stories. Alexander Pavlovich Ivanov wrote down some of the paintings Vrubel dreamed of from the words of his loved ones.

“He once dreamed that he was looking out the window onto the street big city, gloomy and dull under a gray rainy sky; medieval monks in blind pointed hoods covering their faces, with only narrow slits for the eyes, carry the coffin; the street is full of people moving in complete silence.

Another time he saw himself standing on the seashore, around dark night, the colonnade of some temple is dimly white, and at its feet the black waters faintly sway the reflections of the stars...

Sometimes his speeches were like strange fairy tales about himself, full of some things and hidden significance: he claimed that he lived in all centuries, saw how they were laid in ancient Kyiv Tithe Church, which remembers how he built a Gothic temple and, together with Raphael and Michelangelo, painted the walls of the Vatican.”

From time to time, Ivanov says, the visions completely dissipated, and then Mikhail Vrubel felt the full depth of the misfortune that befell him. Then he “suffered cruelly, complained bitterly to his wife and sister about his fate and cried that he could not see them.” In a painful desire to regain his sight, he “invented various ascetic trials, refused food, spent whole hours standing in front of his bed at night... he said that as a reward he would receive his sight and his eyes would be made of emeralds.” And then “he again forgot about his blindness, raved about great plans and assured that in front of new paintings everything he had created before would seem insignificant.”

Sometimes, when Vrubel was visited by old friends, he came from his dreams, but sometimes he preferred to stay somewhere there, with the builders of ancient temples, with Raphael and Michelangelo.

Vrubel, who had been blind for three years, did not recognize Polenov by his voice at first. “But as my story progressed, I began to remember,” Vasily Dmitrievich writes to his wife, “and remembered that I live on some estate where there are marbles. I asked if he remembered Serov and Korovin, he said: “I remember his brother too”..."

Vsevolod Mamontov talks about his father’s visit to a St. Petersburg clinic: “Vrubel happened to be out for a walk, and his father went to see him in the park where he was walking... Poor Mikhail Alexandrovich could not recognize the visitor. Then my father sang the bullfighter’s aria from Carmen. Vrubel instantly perked up, recognized his father, but no conversation followed - his mind was so damaged..."

Savva Ivanovich writes about a more successful meeting at Dr. Bari’s hospital: “Yesterday I saw Vrubel... Fortunately for me, he had enlightenment, and all the time he broke through the insane delirium big man... We talked for three hours. I returned home refreshed... All the little things away. Forward!"

Regarding personal courage and inspiration, this is understandable. Regarding art, this is more difficult.

On the eve of his opera and ballet campaign in Europe, Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev launched a large historical display of Russian painting at the Paris Autumn Salon of 1906. “I wanted to get a kind of certification from Paris, there was a need to somehow export what Russia was spiritually rich in,” explained the idea of ​​the exhibition, who took part in its formation Alexander Benois. Occupying 12 halls, the Russian exhibition included more than seven hundred items, from icons to canvases of avant-garde youth. Young Sudeikin and Larionov previously updated Vrubel’s “Mikula Selyaninovich” - this gigantic panel opened the show. Vrubel was given a separate huge hall, where several dozen of his works were housed. Diaghilev, as they say, relied on Vrubel’s paintings. And, which didn’t happen often to him, he made a mistake. As compatriots testify, the French did not appreciate Vrubel, they perceived him as best case scenario their younger brother Gustave Moreau, a master of fantastically lush allegories on mythological themes. But! Here, when reading Sudeikin’s memoirs, patriotic hearts should flutter. “In Vrubel’s hall, where there was no one,” writes Sergei Sudeikin, “Larionov and I invariably met a stocky man, similar to the young Serov, who stood for hours in front of Vrubel’s things. It was Picasso."

Wow! I wouldn't choke with emotion.

It’s sad and embarrassing for this triumphant legend and its enthusiastic circulation. Yes, of course, Vrubel did not shock either Picasso or other Parisian innovators. For them, Gauguin, whose retrospective was shown at the same salon, was the day before yesterday, not like the hopelessly outdated Russian painter, with his naive romance and fanatical adoration of natural forms. The avant-garde furiously rushed forward, and Vrubel slowed down, valuing the strict discipline of plasticity. Vrubel wanted to “awaken the soul” by contemplating beauty and mystery, and the leaders of the avant-garde doubted its presence among thick-skinned spectators and acted with strong means in an environment where, as Dali wrote, “everything quieter than an explosion does not reach the ears.” And of course, Vrubel was not the founder of “all the foundations of cubism, constructivism and surrealism.” We managed without him. One can, of course, find among his many original working methods cubism, rayonism, and anything else, but it would never have occurred to Vrubel that here are the origins of entire creative directions. They led, by the way, to a situation that not just anyone, but Pablo Picasso himself defined as follows: “Painting is over, but the artists remain.”

Sometimes, suffering for Vrubel, who is not understood by Europeans, optimists assure that the West has yet to discover his art. It is unlikely. Something very Russian, unnecessary, unreadable in the West, Mikhail Vrubel expressed, some specifically Russian “languor of spirit.” No matter what, the Russians were definitely lucky with Vrubel.

Vrubel faded away slowly, for a long time, for four years.

About the ending, his sister writes:

“Sometimes he said that he was “tired of living.” Sitting in the garden in the last summer of his life, he once said: “The sparrows are chirping at me - barely alive, barely alive!” The general appearance of the patient seemed to become more and more refined, more spiritual. A few days before his last, already fatal physical illness, I had to involuntarily admire his subtle, deeply concentrated appearance, in a suit he had invented for himself (a black camelot blouse with a white collar and the same cuffs) and a plaid.”

Anna Alexandrovna did not want to talk about the less beautiful details of the weakness that forced her brother to suffer and grumble “if only they gave him poison!” The sister knew: it would be most painful for Vrubel. He did not allow the humiliating phase of transformation into a meaningless semblance of a person; on a February night he caught a cold, as his sister writes, “by deliberately standing under the window” and received pneumonia, which turned into fleeting consumption. Even the half-dead Vrubel felt the medicine aesthetically. Ekaterina Ge recalls that “he took quinine almost with pleasure, and when they gave him salicylic soda, he said: “This is so ugly.” He lay very low and said in a low voice: “you need to suffer gracefully.” The psychiatrist Usoltsev has a conclusion regarding Vrubel: “With him it was not the same as with others, that the most subtle, so to speak, the last to arise ideas - aesthetic ones - die first; they were the last to die because they were the first.”

“On the last conscious day, before the agony,” writes Anna Alexandrovna, “he especially carefully put himself in order (he combed his hair, washed himself with cologne), warmly kissed the hands of his wife and sister with gratitude, and we no longer talked to him: he could only answer questions briefly, and once only at night, having come to his senses, he said, turning to the person who was caring for him: “Nikolai, it’s enough for me to lie here - let’s go to the Academy.” Before dawn, when asked what was hurting him, Vrubel answered: “Nothing”... He died quietly. The next day, the coffin with Vrubel’s body was installed in the church of the Academy of Arts.

Mikhail Vrubel's sister-in-law took care of the funeral. Katya figured out how to get the mask removed from the late artist (Petr Bromirsky did this), went to a funeral store, booked a place in the cemetery, and from there hurried to a memorial service in the academic church. “On the way,” she writes, “I bought blue flowers with a long stem, I wanted there to be flowers, like in Vrubel’s painting...” There were so many bouquets at the coffin: roses, lilies, armfuls of lilacs and such a mass of wreaths that “the undertaker began to worry about how they would be transported; the entire funeral chariot was occupied by them.” The bright April sun through the church windows, a crowd of colleagues, the faces of young academicians, ladies in black, mountains of flowers - Katya thought “that the deceased would have liked this picture. There were tears, of course. Nadya burst into tears, saying goodbye to him, but Anna Alexandrovna said: “My brother did not like sharp manifestations of grief.” When they closed the coffin, Anna Alexandrovna knelt down, submissive as always.”

All long way from Vasilyevsky Island to the cemetery at the Moskovskaya Zastava, the coffin was carried in the hands of students of the academy and others art schools. “The funeral was good, not lavish, but with a nice warm feeling. There were quite a lot of people, and whoever was there was sincere,” Serov wrote to his wife.

Priest at the cemetery Novodevichy Convent said briefly:

Artist Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel, I believe that God will forgive you all your sins, since you were a worker.

Alexander Blok made the only speech at the open grave.

The poet said that “the heart of a prophet is revealed in an artist”, that Vrubel’s genius “remained for the world wondrous colors and bizarre drawings stolen from Eternity”, that “we have not yet seen those worlds that he saw”, that “in in the studio of a great artist the words are heard: Look for the Promised Land" and that “we don’t yet have any other means other than art”...

“In general, the funeral was very nice...” Alexandra Pavlovna Botkina said in a letter to Ostroukhov. - And in the cemetery, on the edge, in the middle of the field, there is a mountain of wreaths. Blok spoke, and the larks were singing overhead.”

The portrait of Bryusov was made by order of Ryabushinsky, the publisher of the Golden Fleece magazine, who planned to publish a series in the magazine graphic portraits poets and artists made outstanding masters. Despite the fact that Vrubel had been living in the Usoltsev psychiatric hospital for about a year, this did not stop the enterprising Ryabushinsky - he arrived there with Bryusov, provided the artist with an easel, a box of colored pencils and persuaded him to accept the order. However, Vrubel did not have to be persuaded, since he really liked Bryusov.
He wrote to his wife: “A very interesting and pretty face: a brunette with dark brown eyes, a beard and a matte pale face: he reminds me of a southern Slav, either Insarov or our teacher Feyerchako... I worked 3 sessions: a knee portrait, standing with crossed arms and shining eyes directed upward to bright light" Vrubel also liked Bryusov’s poems - he apparently didn’t know them before, but now, having read them, he found that “his poetry contains a lot of thoughts and pictures. I like him more than all the recent poets.”

The absolutely coherent and sensible tone of Vrubel’s letters, as well as the fact that he was able to perceive and appreciate Bryusov’s difficult poems, shows that his intellect has not faded away. However, the first impression he made on Bryusov was difficult. “He walked in with an unsteady, heavy gait, as if dragging his feet... a frail, sick man, in a dirty, wrinkled shirt. He had a reddish face; eyes - like those of a bird of prey; sticking hair instead of a beard. First impression: crazy!”
But then Bryusov tells how the artist was transformed during his work. “In life, in all Vrubel’s movements, obvious frustration was noticeable... But as soon as Vrubel’s hand took a coal or a pencil, it acquired extraordinary confidence and firmness. The lines he drew were unmistakable. Creative Power experienced everything in it. The man died and was destroyed, but the master continued to live.”

The same thing struck Dr. Usoltsev, who observed his patient day after day.
After the artist’s death, Usoltsev wrote: “While a person is alive, he still breathes; while Vrubel was breathing, he created everything... With him it was not the same as with others, that the most subtle, so to speak, the last to arise ideas - aesthetic ones - perish first; they were the last to die because they were the first.”
The portrait of Bryusov was first painted against the background of a dark lilac bush, from which his face stood out in relief and vividly. Bryusov was delighted with the portrait, but the artist did not consider it finished and continued the sessions. Bryusov needed to go to St. Petersburg for two weeks; upon his return, he gasped - the entire background with lilacs was erased. “Mikhail Alexandrovich wished it this way,” explained the young artist, who visited Vrubel in the hospital and helped him wash off the background. Vrubel told Bryusov that lilacs did not suit his character (perhaps this was true!) and that he would do new background depicting the wedding of Cupid and Psyche, based on a photograph from an Italian fresco. Perhaps Bryusov’s passion for poetic wanderings among bygone eras, which Vrubel caught in his poems, led the artist to this idea. He set to work on a new background, but managed to apply only a preliminary sketch to the canvas, where hints of the image are barely visible. At this point, the work ended, as the artist’s vision began to fail - he couldn’t see what his hand was doing, he mixed up the colors, and took the wrong pencils.
Bryusov claimed in his memoirs that the portrait in its present form “did not reach even half of that artistic power, which was in it before”, that “we only have a hint of a brilliant work.” It is impossible to verify this now, but high quality the portrait, such as we see it now, is beyond doubt. After all, the face and figure remained untouched, and the new background, although sketchily sketched, is Vrubel’s characteristic black and white “crystals”, they beautifully frame the face, so that it does not seem either silhouetted or too dark. The plastic surgery of the face, the pose, the crossed arms - everything is so perfect that it doesn’t require any allowance for illness: Bryusov’s portrait stands on the level best works Vrubel. The sharp play of lines subtly conveys the model’s majestic and imperious spiritual aura. Not to mention the impeccable similarity to the original, it has a high monumental structure, even some kind of closeness to the image of the poet-prophet, although there is nothing overly ecstatic or broken: Vrubel guessed in Bryusov a thinking and strong-willed poet. Bryusov ended his memoirs with the words: “After this portrait, I don’t need another. And I often say, half-jokingly, that I try to remain similar to my portrait made by Vrubel.”

Coal, sanguine, chalk. Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow.

The last is a portrait of the poet Valery Bryusov. His “two worlds” are subtly felt by Nina Petrovskaya: “The poet’s figure, slightly tilted forward, is separated from the canvas, dotted with hieroglyphs. Everything about her is stone, dead, the ascetic frozen lines of a black frock coat, thin arms crossed and pressed tightly to her chest, like a face carved from granite. Only the eyes are alive - gaps into smoky and fiery abysses. The impression is ominous, almost repulsive. Fire tongue, enclosed in a tight case of a black frock coat. This is scary. Two sides of existence devouring each other - some otherworldly hint.” Vrubel does not seek to turn a portrait into an allegory, does not set the goal of “putting an idea into a sensual form,” but the very form of his works has an associative-metaphorical character, giving rise to a symbol in the mind of the viewer.

Vrubel was prevented from finishing the portrait of Bryusov by the onset of blindness in 1906. He died in 1910. Just three years later, his wife passed away. The place of the artist in Russian art is determined not only by the expression of the ideas of symbolism and modernity. Based on the eternal, enduring images of Russian and world art, Vrubel creates his own myth, majestic and tragic. The artist exalts the secrets of the human spirit. Spiritual life appears in his works as highest value. Vrubel's use of stereotypical images of modernism does not turn his works into a product popular culture. The content of the form saves us from this. Great skill, tragedy and greatness of spirit and great decorative gift make Vrubel an artist for all times.

Vrubel perfected his drawing system. He was equally brilliant in all graphic materials. This is confirmed by illustrations for “The Demon” by M.Yu. Lermontov. What brought the artist closer to the poet was that both cherished in their souls the ideal of a proud, rebellious creative nature. The essence of this image is dual. On the one hand, the greatness of the human spirit, on the other - immeasurable pride, an overestimation of the strength of the individual, which turns into loneliness. Vrubel, who took the burden of the “demonic” theme on his fragile shoulders, was the son of an unheroic time. Vrubel's "Demon" has more melancholy and anxiety than pride and greatness..."

God's Grace Painter

In the history of world painting, there are few artists endowed with the divine gift of color. Vrubel takes a worthy place in this unique list. His gift for painting has been highlighted since his studies at the Academy of Arts. Vrubel deepened and complicated his entire life color palette and found new, previously unknown combinations on it. The Italians had a strong influence on him: Bellini and Carpaccio, early Byzantine mosaics and ancient Russian frescoes..."

Vrubel's pedagogical activity

ABOUT pedagogical activity Almost nothing is known about Vrubel, but, fortunately, the story of the artist M.S. Mukhin, who studied with M.A. Vrubel at the Stroganov School, has miraculously reached us. He reveals a new, unknown facet of the master’s talent. The artist was invited to the Stroganov School by his director N.V. Globa, who did a lot for the rise of artistic and industrial education in Russia. So, at the turn of the century, M.A. Vrubel finds himself within the walls of Stroganovka. Here is the story of M.S. Mukhin...